Some of my friends have asked why I didn’t talk about my book here. I just cannot do that. The book is the book and I hope somebody likes it. But putting this video here by Bryan is as far as I can go. However, what I can do is I think legit. Published below is a letter from Sam Harris, (Postcards From Home), who managed to get a hold of the first signed copy. So he is, as far as I know, the only person here on Burn to have actually seen the book.

So Sam writes:

BASED ON A TRUE STORY… This book is simply amazing!!! AMAZING!! You have to hold it, feel it, pour over it, get inside it, take it apart, rebuild it, live it, smell it, caress it and then it all makes sense… FRESH, SENSUAL, SEXY, KILLER, DOPE… DAH leads by example, he could just sit back and talk about past glories, but that’s not David’s style… he’s out there doing it, living it. Now, right now… Ideas happen… ‘based on a true story’ is the living proof ; )) This book is an absolute classic. dah’s best yet! And the very best thing about ‘based on a true story’ IS the PHOTOGRAPHY.

Certainly the most sophisticated book, I have ever seen. Multiple ways of looking at it. Great ideas came together and created an outstanding book. Now, I want one. To hold, smell, touch, see and keep it.
WHAT NOT TO LOVE?

THAT’S WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT!!!
Brilliant! The first time DAH showcased that to me up in new York I lost it..
Literally.. I downed half a bottle of scotch and took me 12 hours to figure out what I just saw..
A glimpse of the future:)

Fantastic! Beautiful! Great! One image playing out the next gets a whole new dimension. Had to watch a few times. Need to see it in the flesh. Hard to resist getting one. (Thanks for the discount too! 1.99 pays back big time.) Thank you mr Harvey.

is this an instructional video to it?
as a newbie to photography and dah’s style of layers etc.. id have to watch you guys read it..
purely amazing if you knew what you were doing…. to fully appreciate it…
very original and interesting…. and done at blazing editing speed…..

While I own all of David’s books, this is one I’ll pass up. It’s beautifully done, but seems to me more art piece than photo book. In the end, I’m more interested in photos than packages, and there are too few of the former and too much of the latter to appeal to me. It is a pretty cool piece of art, though, and innovative, as you would expect from DAH. Congrats to everyone who worked to produce it.

Congrats to all the creative brains behind this book.
No doubt, it is a unique piece and is destined to become a collectors piece.

Personally,though, I’m going to take a pass as my personal taste in enjoying a book is
a little less interactive :)
Throughout the RIO process we were teased,either in the blog or on the ‘wall’ with many
incredible images and most didn’t seem to make the relatively limited book edit.

Regardless of my taste, the book is unique and will be sold out in no time.

it is 3;40 a.m. my time and i will have some new thoughts for you after i sleep ..i can respond to any questions etc….for sure we knew that this book would be my most revered by some and my most hated by others…hey, the nature of moving past the edge…

we were surely not creating it “to sell” to a mainstream audience…this is a limited specialty item…not for everyone..not for all tastes….however, there is no way that anyone here could possibly know what pictures are in the book…nobody here has seen it!!!

so for those who find this version a bit too “far out”, please see the October issue of NatGeo upcoming for a more traditional interpretation of my time in Rio…but for sure we did invent something…certainly the consensus here in Sydney at the HeadOn fest…again, not for everyone…

one of the reasons for going into hand assembled speciality books is that all other books now look like “on demand” books….everybody now has an on demand book in their Domke bag….so we want to make things that cannot be produced on demand…is this for the art market? well, maybe, but the book market in general is changing…i know for sure where i want to be in it…

by the way, NatGeo went all out….big spread coming…October issue..the two versions together will i think one day be studied…one straight photo j and the other with a novella overlay ..one (above) set in Rio but not about Rio and the NatGeo version actually about Rio..many of you may remember that i started with a NatGeo assignment and then went to my own financing….

i think you also know that we spared no expense….so the book is expensive..no choice…not intended to be a “bargain”…..we are doing a newspaper version to be distributed for free in the favelas of Rio…

My heart just shattered when I saw that I couldn’t
afford the book. I want it so bad, I hope it’ll be
available for a long time so I can gather some money for it.
It looks absolutely fantastic, better than I thought it would.
The layout is great, pictures are so good. Damn! I need it :)

Late last week, I signed a contract for what will be the first paying work that I have taken on since early November. I say “paying work” because I have been working hard almost every day of that time and have traveled half way around the world and back – BUT – I haven’t made any money, except to sell a few photos here and there, and now I am broke, broke, broke, BROKE! This contract is a small one, but if all goes well it will lead to a big job that will keep me going for a year and pay well, so I can start getting out of this hole.

In the meantime, I am little perplexed as to how to pay for this book.

I have been here for Burn, as Burn has for me, so… please hold one in reserve for me for a week or two to see if I can figure this out.

Got some brief glances when I gasped out loud in a quiet coffee shop, reading the part about the favelas :) Beautiful idea, love that you are doing that. It would be great to see some of the reactions you get.

i sincerely appreciate you complimenting the uniqueness of the book, but mostly for giving credit to those who worked on it…thank you…for sure this was a collaboration between Eva, and Bryan and Candy for the heart of the creative production….Eva proved to me an unbound book could work…Bryan seized on the idea and came up with something heretofore not seen and Candy dug deep into my drives and actually found some pictures i had missed….she was also the driver of riobook online paywall and the cover girl!! how cool is that?? so it really was a family affair all around…of course this alone does not a good book necessarily make..and for sure the style of this will throw some off as it has you…betting it won’t in the long run…

yet if you really do have all my other books, and i believe that you do, then you should have this one…for sure the simplest of all my books in reality…perhaps the video gives an impression that you would not feel if you held the book….the box first seen in the film is the mailing box…to be thrown away…we just wanted it to be well designed too…but there are actually fewer moving parts to this than most books..just different moving parts…and for sure there is plenty of photography…you have not seen most of the pictures in it even if you were on riobook….66 full frame pictures…more than i usually have..yes, some are “punctuation marks” and “adjectives” but most are solid pictures i feel…they can be viewed in a way not normally available to you in most books…you could even pull out a page and frame it…we used the paper money is made from to satisfy extra handling stress…

anyway, i also really believe this book takes me way beyond the others…there is very solid photojournalism in this and yes a personal novella overlay..a puzzle, a drama..so it cannot claim to be a straight report, but i make no claims…would just hope some would sit and “read” it… in time you will see Jim…

i feel so strongly that you will see it differently one day, and because of your long support of Burn , and your own gift giving to some of the readers here, i will send you a signed comp copy….just because i think you should have it to make your collection most complete….i have not done this for anyone else, and i won’t….i usually disagree with you, think you are often over the top, but have always defended your absolute right to speak..and you say what you think…something i respect above all else….

As you know, a book is many things and serves a multitude of purposes for many people: friend, companion, inspiration, renegade, bete noir, lifesaver, beacon, pet, nourishment, sorcerer (ensorceling), bedpost, chair leg, cushion, pillow, guillotine, lover, spouse, agency of grace…..

And as you also know, as we’ve spoken about, and as I’ve written here and elsewhere, books at critical junctions of my own life and toss out their rescuing arms and literally saved my life. That is, indeed, probably even more truthful now over the last 6 months as I’ve struggled and managed to brave the change of my own life with humor and wild-eyed optimism and quiet and reflection and an unabiding love through the forest of all that loss. I’ve kepy my cameras and films and prints in their bidners and boxes for the last 5 1/2 months and instead spent a great deal of time being spoken to by books…trying to abacus their experience as counting beads of my own….

In a sense, I see (based on a true story) in the same exact vein. Of course, I’m thrilled by it’s refusal to be categorized as just another photonarrative thingie. I love its sense of bursting and shell-breaking metamorphosis. I love that it is tactile as it is visual, like all great books really are. In many ways, I had secretly hoped that your book about _______ (rio/brazil/candy/sisters T/light/favella/sex/love/hate/sadness/isolation/collision) would not be another lovely abeit predictable book of snaps, no matter how lovely those snaps maybe. I’m happy that you have made not really a photography book but something more akin to a maze, an urn, a jigsaw into which it is clear that so much has errupted in you over the last 9 months, and maybe more specifically the last 3 1/2 years. It is a less a book, specifically about Rio, than it seems the clockwork of your own life and the life that has emerged post the birth of Road Trips/BURN.

Clearly the design and handiwork is a puzzle and I love that it works against easy interpretation and more toward the corporal, the bodywork of thinks. In a sense this jigsaw of a book is a metaphor, but a metaphor for many many different things. The way the pages slip in and out of one another, the way they collide and reimainge each image through its intersection and juxtaposition with both similar pictures (in time and place) and against pictures of different time and place. It is a metaphor for your relationship with women, a metaphor for your ‘romance’ with Candy and the Sisters T, a metaphoro for your relationship with photogrpahy and Rio specifically but also its clearly a metaphor for Rio itself and all its wilding and heart-thumping complexity: the promixity of life and death, of the poverty and squalor and violence of Favella and the liquid spread of the caipirinha and the sexd up sun, both with are joined together in the most ripe samba there is: the brazilian sense of life that comes not from the oppressiveness of death but from the emancipation of death, a trait that in a culture I have yet to find but in Brazilian, and with brazilian friends: their sense of joy, not joy in the simple way, but in the more trusting and authentic and unmediated way.

But this jigsaw, to me, may very well be Candy’s story, her relationship to both the city and the work she does in the favella’s and all that separation and connection entails for her and her kids/students and the twining of those 2 very disparate places: the beach and favella, the same intermixing of blood and blackbeans and rice, of dance and of fucking, of the sad sirens and helicopters that irridate the night with the same sound as the day is clicked loud by the shouts and soccerballs kicked. That mad dance and it seems to me is contained in not only the pictures but more importantly its construction. as Daniel Sada writes: the in out in out in out of life…the same thrusting between bodies….or of breath….

as someone who has made his own books by hand, i celebrate the risk you’ve done to make something that is clearly a vessel of love. It isn’t perfect. Its full of suffocating colors and collages and collapses. It seems intensely designed and forces the viewer to cramp up in its intense space, with little room to breathe, but it is just that clausterphobia and madness that, to me, best bespeaks what the book has accomplished. something that sits more interestingly and inspiringly past the stupid simplicity of photographs…but toward both an awakening (for you) and letting go….i’m proud that you’ve turned the very inspiration you’ve given to others here for years into something for yourself, for in many ways the books seems both a book of a young guy (contraty to what Martin Parr things about old men making books) and an acceptance off that limitation too….

a book filled with joy…and asyou know joy, like life, is a fucking sloppy endeavor…not neat at all, but a mess…and yet, that mess just gives us the meat in the meaning in our lives…..my own life a complete mess at the moment, but savoring tooo its kalidescopic puzzle as i twine it together…

and yet, one last bit: i’m so happy Bryan choose (or whoever) that beautiful blue pull-out thread/binding….not only i love this kind of thing for a book binding, but for those who aren’t familiar with Brazilian Bahia Bands (wish bracelets of cloth)…Lembrança do Senhor do Bonfim da Bahia…..this blue binding is a Bahia Band, granting wishes oncethey fall off the wrist….normally i like 3 knots ;))…but i guess i’ll live with two…

save me a copy…as you know i have no money to speak of at the momnet….though, i guess at this point, that’s good enough…i’ve got the book in my head…

and congratulations to Bryan and eva and Diego and Andrea and Michael and Candy

If you like outstanding photography, then this book is for you.
If you like puzzles, then it is for you.
If you like a box of prints, then this is for you.
If you like stories, then it is for you.
Mystery, or simple, you get it both with it, it is up to each viewer how to look at it.
Simply flip through full bleed photographs that hardly ever come in this size when buying a photo book. Not ruined by text or crops through the fold, but to hold wholly in your hands.
Or being seduced by the tale.. from cover to cover and back again.. and then cross wise..
Or you can build your own story, make your own matches, take your own journey through the duality Rio is made up of.. the people of Rio in relation to David, or in relation to you.. friends and strangers alike, an eye inside and an eye out, and connecting everything, or let it fall apart.
It is a very sensual fairy tale, told with great respect for the people that ARE the tale.

I am very curious to hear your thoughts once you get it, hold it, feel it.. and absorb it, or get absorbed.. :)

Looking for the third time that video of the book.
Looks terrific!!
A new way of making books… Great bcause the person who has it, can frame every week a different picture of Rio, and hang it in a wall as they aren’t glued to the book.
You need to patent this method…
The presentation looks terrific, now I figure it out when you said that you have worked 25hs per day in the making of.
Nice to know that a “newspaper” for Cariocas is also coming out as they can’t afford this whole piece of art!

Question:
I see DAH style in every single picture inside the book.
Emotions, energy, colors, hard and awesome composition, contrasts, I see that you were in the core of the action during that period in Brazil.
What about the front picture?
Took (i guess) at 2pm below a killing sun in Copacabama?? Flat colors, steady image (I mean, not much happening, just a girl with an Ice-Cream), I’m a little curious about that particular selection for the cover…
Maybe you told us in the RIO BOOK blog, and I missed the comment…

1. EPF finishes today.
Good luck to everyone!!! Can’t wait to see masterpieces of new photographers!
Hope that Roberta Tavares submitted something…)

2. Kadir Van Lohuizen will give a workshop prior to the VISA Festival in southern France, in a cute village called Uzès. Not so expensive… (nearly 600 EUR for the whole week).
Info here -> http://www.noir-ivoire.com/

many thanks for your confidence Mark….you know we have printed only 600 of these books as a first edition…we literally stopped the press…some will print more to reduce the cost of each, but not us…we wanted a for real first edition..honestly we are not trying to sell lots of books…and also honestly even if we did not sell any books, we are not in a financial scramble….this is a true labor of love…for sure your investment will be worth it….please enjoy…and take it apart and put it back together your own way…even for me it is a lot of fun to do this…i see something different every time….look at it our way, but invent your own…there has never been anything like this before….even for us it was a very pleasant discovery…

yes, the cover is very simple…yet, i have never had any picture that seems to grab so many disparate people….when i shot it , i knew i had something…it is VERY DIFFERENT from much of my previous work for sure, yet fits when you see it in context…when i shot it, i immediately knew i had something special..i made several sets of images blowing out the highlights on purpose…to be the opposite of my normal color pallet…most of my daytime work is shot late and saturated…i wanted DAY…real DAY…too hot…too overexposed….you use also know that Candy (the woman with beach ball) is a central “character” for the book…a muse….there are five key characters…they are weaved throughout…there is a bit of a mystery story…but i cannot tell you all of it…there was no attempt to make this book look like my other books, yet my other work should segue into this without difficulty when put all together….Cuba, Div Soul flow right into (based on a true story)….the new book actually ends up as a reference point for the earlier work….look at it awhile…you will see….

Sorry David if this is a bad place for this question…
I recently went live with a kickstarter photography project – and I’ve just read some very disturbing news that a rapidly growing number of people and places are ignoring all projects on kickstarter due to a lack of control over what is being proposed and people being defrauded. I don’t want that reputation to hurt my chances of being funded… I’m barely a week into it and I’m already concerned I may have to pull the plug and continue elsewhere (Emphas.is)
What do you guys think?

i left a comment for you somewhere else, i cannot remember where ..yesterday…hope you saw it…listen , i will work this out for you…send me a private email….no worries…relax…you do so much for others…..

this book has Leica M9, Nikon D700, GF1 and iPhone!! in a few cases i would defy anyone to tell me which is which..some obvious low light iPhone, but one case where the iPhone and M9 really look alike!! depends on the light of course…cover is GF1…Candy, who is here right now, and did the downloads says most are with Leica and Nikon, next GF1 and only a few iPhone…i am actually going to go through and count..let you know soonest….

Burn just works opposite to most online magazines, where they go from print to the internet, abandoning the hard copies.. here it is the internet that goes to print.. the virtual becoming real, something not only to look at, but also to touch, smell and feel..

damn, that looks great and those kids look so smart and real and pretentiousless…hand links to more of their work! :))…would love to hear how the Head-on folk and viewers enjoyed their exhibition…many times the young ones are wiser than us old folks…something i learned alot from Dima when he was interested in making stuff…

These kids take lots of photos happy snaps serious stuff, out wacko experiments from an early age so they get their eye in……. even at art school we older folk didn’t have their visual skills let alone conceptual thinking

Sorry Bob yea that’s Tiffany on the far right it really is a great work her and her mum in sync age wise but aware of the distant void in between……….. probably the most talked about work. Most we look enjoy and move on her stuff we think about it on the way home.

that’s a shame, would have loved to see more of their work for sure :)))…that’s what i thought (Tiffany, the tall one on the right)…i remember your students better than you young man ;)))…if you can provide a link to Tiffany’s work, send it here…would love to see her stuff…interested for sure…so happy y’all put this together…

Here’s my take on what’s especially brilliant about (based on a true story):

It takes photo books into the midst of multimedia. The modularity of the exciting visuals allows the viewer to create her or his own juxtapositions and thus to become a more active PARTICIPANT in the interpretation of a dream-like happening, a story with many intriguing possibilities.

Just two sentences about a powerful idea!

An incredible step for the continuing relevance of “still” photography. Can’t wait to play with my own interpretations of it, in hand.

Brilliant. The soul of the OBX I love. It really is a special place and wrapped up in my childhood memories as well. Funny, last time I was there I got the rental car stuck in the sand at the lighthouse pictured. Let a little air out the tires. Spit me out. Old trick I see :))

David, so happy to finally see this work. Would love to see the broader edit some day. Do I remember a quiet photo with a woman looking out the window at the pier?

I am purely amazed! – Good, I bought two – one to look and shuffle, show around and mix, the other one to be sure, there is one un-touched, fall-back or maybe to frame some of the pictures. anyway – this is stuff to keep :)

Carlo It will take me a few weeks to get the images together for a slide show. Though they should be up on another site soon ……. changed the mouse rollover image http://www.etrouko.com/studentshow.html

EVA.. Kim is ready to start DISTRO!
Give us the Green Flag and we are READY to start shipping as soon as possible..
21st may my birthday.. Let’s start distributing at 21st!
That’ll be my birthday gift..
CAN’T WAIT!!!

Panos the large prints are printed on vinyl with tarp eyelets, others were on canvass , very fine high end fiber paper, vacuum sealed perspex images cheap Wall mart style ….remember these are art kids using photo media not photography students. The conceptual thinking aspect is their main concern and how it relates the audience via to material resolution

Imants; Here’s a link to the kids exhibition (opening night was last Tuesday) that I was telling you about. I really enjoyed giving them the mini-workshop. They were all aged between 8 and 10 years old; and they did really well. All done with cameras ranging from their cellphones to point and shoots. They were so excited to see their work on the walls. They also did graffiti art and a short video

GREAT GREAT AWESOME…
HARVEY SPIRIT everywhere :)
The next gen
The next gen
The next generation .. That’s all we got.. Let’s just focus on the next gen and all is gonna be fine ( with the help of the right teachers/ mentors of course)
Proud of you too ROSS!!!!!
Big hug

“Let’s just focus on the next gen” us old blokes are not done and dusted yet we still have a lot of ticker left. If they want the visual space they will have to scramble with the rest of us Panos http://www.etrouko.com/imants.html

Imants; the really interesting thing to me was how excited they were to see their work printed. Most had only seen their photos on their phones, computer screens and laptops etc. To see their work printed large (gratis by the local town council) and on the wall was a real buzz for them.

It’s sad that the history of photography is being forgotten as technology makes it so easy to click buttons at the world. Film is still very relevant, if not in the fast pace of journalism, then in the world of art. Even old obsolete technologies like collodion, still have their place. It’s said a digital photography is merely a theoretical accurate re-interpretation by a computer of what the photographer once saw, and film is a process of chemical reactions which creates physical evidence – of what the photographer once saw.

It’s said a digital photography is merely a theoretical accurate re-interpretation by a computer of what the photographer once saw…… for the non photographers it is a damn side more fun than it used to be.

class act: a person or thing displaying impressive and stylish excellence.
in a class of (or on) its (or one’s) own unequaled, esp. in excellence or performance : the delicacy of English roses puts them in a class of their own.
usage, see: david alan harvey.

ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (sense 3) : from Latin classis ‘a division of the Roman people, a grade, or a class of pupils.’

I am pretty dead certain I cannot afford it, and regret it, so I will return again to this little clip itself.
The concept (detachable, interchangeable, ie. “cubique” M.O.) in approach is fresh but not exactly new for anyone who has been spending hours in photo sections in bookstores, so the content (the images themselves, that is), and the visual inter-action and correspondances within it are promordial to full enjoyment and grasping of David’s creative intent. To be enjoyed like the ice-cream Candy is tasting on the cover, and more…. Bop bam a lu lop a wam bam boo Tutti frutti unruly!!!!

i spend half my life browsing book stores, looking at books etc…can you give me another example of a “read” like this? anxious to see it…the video does not even begin to tell the story, but i can imagine someone else must surely have done this, but i have not seen it…the Magnum postcards crew did have an unbound newspaper but that was after we did ours and there was no story to it…anyway, let me know…

Haven’t received my print copy but just downloaded my June ish of Nat Geo, wherein lies a nice little written piece by our fearless leader, DAH. Its accompanied by his photos, too — the guy’s a good “shooter,” too. Who knew?

Will there be another edition, I can’t afford the book.
I completely understand the price though, handmade book, such a beautiful work.
I hope there will be a version more affordable, I’ve been looking forward to
this book for so long.

Back home… seems extra quiet here after a week or so in the dah household… it was hard to tear myself away but I am thankful, most grateful for all the inspiration and beautiful friendships…

Yes I am a lucky boy, to have found myself in the middle of it all, sitting at the table of David’s movable feast, the burn roadshow… no longer an abstract relationship through a computer screen. Thank you David, Eva, Roberta, Candy, Michelle and Bryan… love you all…

And so back home… I unpack, not just memories, postcards, gifts and photos but also my new favorite book,

‘based on a true story’

BASED ON A TRUE STORY… This book is simply amazing!!! AMAZING!!

You have to hold it, feel it, pour over it, get inside it, take it apart, rebuild it, live it, smell it, caress it and then it all makes sense… FRESH, SENSUAL, SEXY, KILLER, DOPE…

DAH leads by example, he could just sit back and talk about past glories, but that’s not David’s style… he’s out there doing it, living it. Now, right now… Ideas happen… ‘based on a true story’ is the living proof ; ))

This book is an absolute classic. dah’s best yet! And the very best thing about ‘based on a true story’ IS the PHOTOGRAPHY.

so many great, great shots, so many surprises!

David said he was keeping the good stuff back, but I had no idea just how much! the man is a non stop dynamo, a torch burning bright… the excellent prints in his exhibition at ACP only hint at what’s inside this book…

I don’t know what to say, really unexpected as meaningful gifts always are, I am totally humbled by your generosity, Can’t wait for it and can’t wait to reciprocate one day in a way that will warm your heart as much as mine is today.

David, no big deal, I only meant the concept of creating a photobook so that its approach goes beyond, to sum up, the linearity of flipping pages one after the other. And did not mean the exact way you designed yours, which, reading you, and thanks to Thomas Bregulla, I will find out, and only find out when it is in my hands.

many thanks for this comment and question…for sure on my mind since day one of how i should do this…

honestly, right now i cannot figure out how to make a more affordable version…i want to build the finest possible books for many photographers…Burn will build fine books….it is pretty hard to manufacture a premium product and then have a lesser version…there is no way to make the very best AND the less expensive…at some point we did look at printing a mini book, but that ended up costing as much as the “real one”…we will soonest print a free newsprint version to give to people in the favelas of Rio, and for me to just hand out when the mood strikes me…but for now i think i have to go with this one…there will be an iPad (based on a true story) if that helps..the iPad model will make the layout even more intriguing for sure.

when i was a student and long after and the poorest of the poor, i still managed to buy a few photo books i just “had to have”..i was serious about photography so it became where i put everything…into my own work and in celebration of those who made it to print in a significant way…yet,my work mostly appears very affordable or free in magazines and online…i give away 98% of what i do…and this book is expensive because of the manufacturing and the limited edition value which puts it in the art object category and not the mass media category…this is simply a place for me to be at my most creative..to make all that i can make…i would never however not have the very same pictures out on the net for free and in mass circulation magazines…

Just thinking out loud a bit around the topic of how a a finely produced,limited edition book
could co-exist with a more consumer-based product.

My idea is a bit ‘out there’ but I long thought that Magnum,for example, is in an ideal situation
with their massive archive and huge ‘following’ in creating a mechanism where a consumer, such as myself
or Micael, in this thread, could pay to access a one-off,secure archive of images perhaps in partnership
with a producer such as Blurb and have the ability to create individual books.
This could open the door to a whole other realm of interactivity between producer and enduser.
As an example, there could be something a la iTunes where there is a $.99 per image access fee plus
a base fee,say $10.00 for book rights per unit to print (Blurb page fees in addition)
This way, based on interest or budget, I could ‘edit’ my own book with available images thereby allowing me
to work to my budget while at the same time creating licensing revenues for photographer/agency

I think it could open the door to a fantastic revenue stream while at the same time making available
budget products that the creator does not have to have a labor or financial hand in.
The interaction between creator and enduser would be, I imagine, something not seen before

For branding, specific templates could be created that would further circulate agency/photographer brand
even though the enduser was creating the product.

Books, of course, are very personal for the photographer and edit/design would be at the whim of the
enduser in my idea but you would still have the luxury of creating the limited edition, high end products
you are on the road to developing, now.

“could ‘edit’ my own book with available images thereby allowing me to work to my budget while at the same time creating licensing revenues for photographer/agency”

So the user is the editor not the photographer….. why bother with a book just create a file of images for people to play with. So you think that it is ok to take David’s Divided Soul for example and personally edit it to suit yourself and throw away all of David’s efforts in compiling the book? A book is a package with a conceptual framework, it is something that is resolved in a sophisticated manner so it may engage the audience. It has an individual’s signature a life of its own and it shouldn’t be sold of as some sort of discount supermarket produce on lay buy. Start pulling a book apart and you are challenging the integrity of the creator …..just to make it cheaper for the consumer.
I doubt if burn or David are about revenue hunting otherwise there would be canon, nikon and soft porn ads on this site. Sure David and others are trying to figure ways that we can make some financial returns but not at the expense of the photographers vision in crafting books
.
Now the book part

budget products create budget mediocre results ……..now if you are willing to go down that path for the sake of a few dollars go for.

I have tried about half a dozen of these so called book printers and at best the results are so so. I am using an Australian organisation that pumps out books that are very good to excellent if one uses high end papers and accesses proofs etc. The catch is that the costs go up considerably. eg a small book 170g paper 50 pages (8.5″x8.5″ 22cmx22cm) there is not much change out of 100 dollars. Sure bulk printing ( a run of 30)for that book will reduce the costs but only by a small percentile …… binding costs don’t change much. These costs will have to be borne by an individual not burn. Start printing in fine art paper and a larger book size is needed to accommodate the paper the costs run to over $500.

Run of the mill binding takes up anywhere between 35% -45% of the costs with top end stuff you are looking at 60%+. Most manufacturers supply printer colour profile some better than others and this is the responsibility of the photographer to get colours tone etc correct not the printer.
I know I spend a fair bit of time getting my images right for printing and they are very different in process to what is required on the net as are images for a slide show presentation at a seminar workshop etc. Now with all the effort is it really worthwhile sending your images off to someone where you have very limited input to quality control? Remember if there is an anomaly in printing the printer questions the quality of your files.
Take David for an example he has gone to considerable cost to both manufacture and promote the book. He is in Sydney for 3 weeks has a show and runs a workshop to help cover those costs but it is hard work. It doesn’t stop there as he has to take it on the road for further promotion…….there is no free ride

When you guys see David’s book you will realise that it is a package not a bunch of photos hobbled together sure you can play with it pull it apart, reorganise, pin on a wall etc but this is a physical activity it is not a buy a print to order game.
The book in the box well that is another new twist and experience………..

“So you think that it is ok to take David’s Divided Soul for example and personally edit it to suit yourself and throw away all of David’s efforts in compiling the book?”

In a way,yes, though the idea would be more structured towards individuals creating new
compilations and not re-doing a Divided Soul,for example.

If I recall correctly the concept for ‘Based on a True Story’ could be attributed to Bryan and Eva
and much of the editing results from Candy’s efforts in tracking down previously unconsidered images
My impression is that the end result was achieved by after the fact collaboration and not a predefined
vision that resulted in the final book.

Anyhow Imants,you have more valid points in your post than mine but I was just throwing an idea out there.

With that said,I start working on my edit of David’s images for Unified Soul starting tomorrow.

They would be re doing David’s Divided Soul text image sequence are all important to the

‘Based on a True Story’ it is David’s book he still holds the final say this is no different to a artist who gets a manufacturer to help design construct but the final aesthetic conceptual judgements are made by the artist.

With that said,I start working on my edit of David’s images for Unified Soul starting tomorrow……… then why not take it one step further and release it on the black market at as “Divided Soul the mtomalty version”…..then you can easily afford to buy all ‘Based on a True Story’ to your hearts content ………. after all your proposal is about getting a better deal for the consumer

There are no dramas one compiling 50 photos putting them up as a series selling as a compilation pick a box style

………..or buy a couple of Rembrants and cut and paste them with a Goya …….appropriation at its best but they are no longer Goyas nor Rembrants they are something else as you have changed the meaning…. ” The Night Watchman executes himself in front of a firing squad”

The carpet traders of the Central Asia went one better ….they cut up rare carpets sold off a few pieces to rich collectors and then slowly released the whereabouts of the missing pieces collectors went looking for them and paid overinflated prices ………. most of the pieces were held by the traders.

If the intent to make money overrides the work people will do most anything………if the intent from the outset was for a compilation buy as you go image bank no problems your model fits. But it probably wasn’t a book in the first place, that would be a waste of time and money

IMANTS. While I agree with much of what you say above, I do find that, without exception, I do not have a single photographic book that I view as a linear narrative object.(except on first reading possibly)

This is the norm for me with Photographic books, and pictures generally, so I can see where Mtomalty is coming from to a certain extent. Why buy a book with 100 images in it when you only really love five of them? And should the artistic intent of the creator be a dogma?
I would say no to that.
My love is images, not the contextual or conceptual framework they are presented in. These rarely hold any interest whatsoever for me.

So the question arises: If I reject the narrative structures of the author but still derive satisfaction from the viewing experience, is that experience just as valid as the experience offered by the artists conceptual framework, or is it false?

I think whatever we buy is how the author wanted it to be, his interpretation of the work. That does not mean, however, that I as a viewer must stick to it. I can interpret a story, photographs, my way. That is what I do always.

David’s book, this book, lets you do that not only in a one dimensional way, not only in your head, but you can do it physically, you can take it apart and rebuild it your own way, make your own story… put it together as a book, lay out all the spreads on the floor, pin them to the wall, keep some, throw some out, without ruining it as a book, no ripping apart, no cutting out pages.

It is not a cheap book. But, considering the quality, most of all the photography, without which there would be no reason to even have a book in the first place, it is not an expensive book either. No one will become rich with it, that is for sure. Or better, perhaps one day, collectors might.

Collaboration has played a big role, but without David’s vision, his skills as a photographer to get the images first and foremost, and then to put at work together the people, to push their limits big time (at least mine for sure), to melt both his roles as photographer and mentor in one to get the very best out of his work and themselves, this book would not exist, not in this way. It takes vision and courage to put oneself on the edge, he has both for sure.

Eva interpretation is very different to buying bits and pieces that is not interpretation it is personal editing.

A book is not merely the sum of images that make up the whole…… books are conceptually.

Anyway I would never participate in that mtomalty proposal, every image in my books is there for a reason and relates to the other images inclusive it is a single object.
This is probably why I am not one who takes photographs so we will beg to differ ……………. you guys can pick and choose photography the itunes way and download them on your iphones.

Interpretation is of course different than buying bits and pieces, plus a Blurb version could never ever even come close, not with (based on a true story).. with normal built photo books one could try.. but for sure not with this.. or for example Anton’s Odo Yakuza either.

With (based on a true story) you come closest to what mtomalty proposes, without having to go theough Blurb or anything else, you/everyone can interpret this very book their own way, no need for downloading anything. That does not solve the financial problem.. but then, I think for most it is a question of setting priorities. Not for all of course it is just that, I see where a student might have difficulties to come up with the money.. but I also think there is always a way.. and I have to say that Burn spirit of paying forward is alive here, there are people buying and passing to others who cannot afford it the book.

“My love is images, not the contextual or conceptual framework they are presented in. These rarely hold any interest whatsoever for me.”

I’m just the opposite. I’m not particularly interested in “images” as isolated objects. That’s why I have primarily geometric abstract paintings on my walls, not photos. I’m interested in images as part of some context, particularly the context of the photographer’s decisions in selecting and sequencing the photos. Which is why I prefer photo books to photos as wall art. One of the things that appeals to me about books is that they are frozen in time and space. I’m not really interested in deconstructing and reconstructing the photographers vision.

I think too often we (many of us anyway) approach the work of others with how we would have done it, or how the artist “should” have done it, instead of letting how she or he actually did it wash over us unburdened by our little egotistical concerns. As someone who typically errs on the side of being overcritical I realize it is often easier advocated than done. It as someone who spends far more time working on sequencing than other aspects of production, be it photography or prose, I don’t care a wit how an audience might approach it. And although I respect the intentions of others and usually find it more satisfying to try to understand their vision, in the end I, and anyone else, will bring my own perspective to it.

This book definitely IS meant to be deconstructed, the viewer is invited to become an active partecipant, the book’s interactivity is one of its intentions, the photographer wants you to play, to become part, to leave behind the old and normal way to look at a book. This is all but linear storytelling!

Yes Eva, I understand both how the book is structured and the author’s intent for how people can approach it. I think it’s a great idea incredibly well-executed. Careful you don’t start coming off as over-defensive.

That they know Eva what the conversation is about is books in general not just ‘Based on a True Story’. What is being discussed is the author’s intent in creating books etc.

Eva there are all sorts of hand made books that are not traditional in form. have look at Hideki Naqkajima book , stuff by Segura Incorporated the world is full of all sorts of bizarre catalogs twisting folding reconstructing
A lot of it stems from the days of Dada and Fluxus, have look at how the The Exquisite Book rose from the exquisite corpse game
Spend some time in art schools and kids transcend the book format regularly, some of the most interesting hands on book formats etc are created by architects. They have a really great knack of seeing beyond the formal structure after all their job entails making a box interesting.

Well,the tribe has spoken and my idea has been voted off the island :)

To clarify one point, the “mtomalty proposal” as Imants has coined it was not meant to
replace a photographer author’s vision or execution of their book but rather to support that
product with a,possibly,more accessible formula for the majority of those without the means nor
access to a limited run pricey product.
In David’s case, he spent portions of three years building a body of imagery from Rio with the
net result,excluding the National Geographic edit, being that fewer than 600 people will be in a
position to appreciate the work.
Just seems like a lost opportunity for both the creator and endusers particularly in light of
the immeasurable value and awareness garnered from promotion over the past couple of years.

Second – To me, books are essential. This one breaks new ground, but I would hate to see a bunch of other photographers try to copy the style. I am sure some will, and some might do it very well, and if so, then that will be wonderful, but it is a unique thing, it is David’s and I suspect most who might try to emulate it will fail. The traditionally constructed book, well done, will always be vital.

Folks, love the video, love the book concept, but a book that runs more than a C-note? Fond as I am of Our Leader and the whole Burn crew, the only people I shell out that kind of money to these days are my mechanic, whose kids my car is putting through college, and a couple of guys with MD after their names. So I hope everyone will forgive me if I skip this one. Nice music in the video, though.

I would have one concern with putting a book out like this, it almost under sells the work by making it appear formulaic and perhaps kitschy – meaning it really emphasizes the reoccurring relationships, frame by frame, perhaps over acknowledging it – detracting from the importance of the images them selves… It’s really a cool way to discuss relationships between objects and color theory within the frame. And really shows David’s strength in composition and use of color – but does the book hurt the work? Is the book the main work of art and are the photos secondary only useful to illustrate this style of book? Just the curious in me asking. I still LOVE the book.

At first I was a little perplexed why so many people felt the need to publicly announce that they wouldn’t be buying the book, whether because they didn’t like how it is constructed or for solely budgetary reasons. Although I trust that it was no one’s intent, I’ve noted it has been an effective way to get a free book. Personally, I like the concept and can’t plead quite that level of poverty, so I’ll just have to fork over the cash if it doesn’t sell out too fast. On a totally unrelated note, looking at the outer banks photos, I don’t like the way those beach houses are designed, feel they are overpriced, and can’t afford one anyway. Just sayin…

Thanks Akaky, for your sage words. Please stay alert for the release of my first iPad book, which, if possible at some point, I also hope to adapt to the Kindell, the Nook and whatever else blows through while I am still around.

“President Obama for the first time gained widespread support for his argument that Europe, and the United States by extension, cannot afford Chancellor Angela Merkel’s one-size-fits-all approach emphasizing austerity.”

hmmm someone got yelled today , and about to be fired..
sorry Angela but you knew its coming…

To all European friends: “think Growth, no Austerity”,
then cast your vote accordingly…
Good morning y’all from the Butthole Surfers city ( aka the Military Town ), deep
In the heart of good ol’ Mexico!!!

To all European friends, if you think growth, no austerity, and cast your vote accordingly, then you will get no growth and the austerity anyway. There is no free lunch, no matter what the former junior senator from Illinois would have you believe. Sorry, guys, that’s just the way it is.

Hmm Austerity, a very touchy subject especially for those involved with the Occupy movement – Does it work? Is it harmful? Is it both, like chemo-therapy?
Where else can the “fat be trimmed” if not from needed programs? perhaps from people’s pay checks? whose to say what a job is worth though. Especially a job where only elite seem to gain the needed foot hold (speaking of here in the US).

I have an idea – someone please steal it and try it in their government:
So many countries have mandatory military service. Is stead of military service, what if it were Mandatory Civil Congressional/Senate service? Make the population do what they’re supposed to and teach them first hand what those jobs are for and why they’re so important. Perhaps it would stagnate laws or perhaps it would create new ideas and new visions. Who’s to say without trying.

Funny, Akaky – that’s exactly what the voices of austerity preached when we entered the Great Depression. Austerity drove us deeper in. Then, thanks to the stimulus of World War II, we cast austerity aside and went all out. You might read up a bit on Keynesian economics, the basic theory that times like these are the worst to practice austerity – these are the times to stiumulate to the best of your ability and then, when things come back and people are working, have money and are generating a self-sustaining economy, you cut back.

Also, read Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winning economist. He says the exact opposite of what you do and backs it up with history. He’s pretty smart, too.

Have you heard of the Elliott Wave principle? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Wave_Principle
Most economies have endured at least one super cycle except the US… and with the global economy becoming the predominant economy… I suspect we can expect to see the wave occurring there as well… It will happen, how the people react will change how bad the affect is.

John, sorry to interfere but i dont think Frostfrog meant that WWII was a positive thing…
it did, though, “rejuvenated” “somehow” the US economy… now “how” did that happen, plz dont ask me…thats just words on the street..
but trust me , nobody i know needs/wants a IIIWW….
but regardless all that AUSTERITY/PUNISHMENT is NOT the way to go..
Sarkozy/Bruni know very well that, and now its time mrs Angela to figure it out…
If they care about the people and not just the ECB prosperity only, then Europe has to deal also with the immigration problem in Greece and stop pretending “they”/Euro countries are in such a “unity” coz thats a joke im afraid…so many different economic gears, different cultures, different economies/think germany=exports, everyone else=imports mainly etc…all that in the name of one currency…
i still think United Europe is a great dream but someone needs to REDEFINE it and SOON…
:)
one love

THE GOOD NEWS IS “RIO BOOK” arriving at the AMERICANLANDIA today.. So on my birthday – as EVA knows very well- we will be working non stop in our little Texan- Burn “wherehouse” to print labels , blah blah , get the first batch of Books .. ready to be shipped in USA/MEXICO/CANADA/BRAZIL/CHILE and anywhere in between..
Nail biting ..books arriving..
We are all ( esprcially Kim- I was lucky enough to see a dummie before: )excited ..
Very very excitrd

Actually the pre-production is over.. All labels printed , all groovy,just waiting for FEDEX to deliver the BABIES and then GAME ON!!!
Yes Rio will start shipping way earlier than even DAH announced/anticipated..
Thanks to EVA that re defined the word :EFFICIENCY !
Big thank you to all ITALIAN crew that created the book ( and Bryan Harvey- a non Italian I guess;) and everyone else involved…
And about that ugly earthquake : WE SHALL OVERCOME !

Happy Birthday, Hot Tamale! (You might cough up your cookies knowing of this co-incidence, but today we celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday here north of the 49th.) I hear the sound of fireworks in the distance as I write…

Touche on the new approach to courier tracking-by-Instagram; I can hardly wait for mine.

Belated but heartfelt birthday greetings! I was in the Burn-blackout cocoon of finishing a big and tedious job that was fast approaching the ultimate, no-further-entreaties-delays-or-negotiations-possible-DEADLINE!… and I finished it late last night with a whole 90 minutes to spare… today my eyes won’t focus, my shoulders are stiff, my arms are shaking, and I am still quaking from the caffeine frenzy, but I got it done..!!.. and this gets me out of lots and lots of trouble (until the next time, of course…)

Recently you have been pulling more than your weight around Burn as a step-and-fetch-it errand boy, muscle man, and general fixer, and you deserve thanks and credit from the Burn community for those efforts which benefit us all. I still don’t like your taste in music, however…

Love you back Sidney!!!!!
and I was wondering where the … have u been;)
GLAD YOU ARE BACK!
( and yes I don’t even always agree with my music taste either;))))

But but REAL CREDIT SHOULD GO TO
BRYAN HARVEY
and of course of course to:
EVA!!!!!!!!
EVA IS THE ONE THAT MADE SURE ALL “THAT” ( BURN BOOKS ) will be PERFECT and READY !!!!
I’m HONORED to be the little guy that runs to post office daily, I’m the busboy …
and I’m loving it!

Love u SIDNEY
love you ALL!!!!
I can’t keep my hands off Thais RIO BOOK!
Last night I played played played, created my own RIO FANTASIES,
my own “story”…
I love this book..
Too bad it’s not a mass production book so EVERYONE could have one!
But good stuff are rare…
To the potential RIO BOOK “owners”/collectors:
GREAT CHOICE!
Congratulations to ALL
that purchased the Book , enjoy…
ok running…. Gotta make SURE the book arrives ASAP
at your doors/ thank you for preordering and thank you for the post office little wait!
BE PATIENT , you’ll be EXTREMELY REWARDED!
Again big thanks to
BRYAN HARVEY
DIEGO ORLANDO
EVA THE ASTONISHING and also big thanks to ( KIM skoulidas)
( without u I wouldn’t even be alive today – what’s not to love;)

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that things have really gotten shaken up in the world of gender and language in the last several decades, but stil…
In my youth, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when it was a commonly heard expression, a ‘hot tamale’ referred only and always to a female.. a certain kind of female… una chica muy caliente… a bodacious babe… a red hot mama… and the two archetypal ‘hot tamales’ were Rita Hayworth and Dolores Del Rio. There are many names I can think of to call Panos, but ‘hot tamale’ is certainly not one of them.

To ALL… I understand the feeling of “pressure” of buying a LIMITED EDITION book or piece of Art!
One thing clear, crystal clear please… I got a few emails of individuals that would like to buy a copy direct , or this way or that way etc..
Very very simple:( for now at least , and as far as I know) there’s ONE WAY TO ORDER THE BOOK..
OVER HERE IN BURN WEBSITE…
Most Burnians can use their discount code of course ( for those followed Rio in the making etc.. Blah blah)
Thank you all.. Let’s keep it simple, it’s actually as simple as this:
There is an active button above you / WE can ORDER while it LASTS!
No private emails please or special requests for purchases and for delivery etc…
( BIG thank u from the LITTLE guy ;)
ps: ORDER WHILE IT LASTS!!!
thank you humbly !

just home from Oz…totally burned out…crashing hard…wonderful spring thunderstorm rain to welcome me back to the outer banks for my daytime siesta….i think my OBX NatGeo piece is out…i have not seen it.??? guess i will be up all night…will answer questions then…cheers, d

Sidney, you’re correct and understandably confused by the sexual mix-up with the “Hot Tamale” nomenclature Gladdy assigned Birthday Boy. If I recall, John was willing to bend over for the Greek, not the Stoned Owl; that may explain why you’re presently scratching your head!

evidently we made the shipping box too nice!! some have complained their book arrived with the shipping box damaged…the shipping box was intended as the shipping box!!…to protect the book..to take the heat of handling…however, now everybody likes the actual packing/shipping box as part of the whole package…i get it…i like it too…we only did the design on the shipping box (intended to be thrown away) just to have that nice extra touch…anyway, we from now on will ship the packing box inside another bubble wrap envelope!! to protect the cool shipping box which protects the slipcase, which protects the book!! hey when your shipping cartons become collectable, then that is just fine!

pAtrIcIO, ALL..
best birthday ever.. we are in a frenzy here working non stop to “dress” with enough bubbles all books to protect , the protection box that protects the book… The outside box was meant to be thrown away but it designed so damned good that nobody will throw this away ( who would throw away anything with DAH signature on it???)
So yes, we are going the extra mile to deliver this sensational “experience” at your door as safe as human possible…having said that feel free to email me at panos.skoulidas@gmail.com . Canadians friends (as per usual) they might have to wait an extra day or two but so far everything moves smoothly…
(ps: once again please no personal requests for delivery , prices etc..its all here on BURN…remember : i do not sell books , i only DELIVER;))))))))))))
thank you ALL for your love, patience and birthday wishes…We are not Amazon.com nor B&H…we are a small family all working together with one PURPOSE ONLY: TO DELIVER DAH’S new MASTERPIECE in a perfect condition… and thats about it..
ok, back to work!!!!!!!!!!!

this is what happened to a fellow photographer, friend of mine, mr Rick Hunter after i presented the RIO book to him….(exactly same thing ha-penned to me up in NY when i saw the dummy…
THIS IS HOW AMAZING THIS BOOK IS…
You better be sitting when open it… otherwise you might find yourself on the floor like my friend Rick above…smiling…Rick’s famous “last words”: “how can anyone top this off now?????”
smiling smiling….ok enough of me…back to work!
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING BURN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just got home; the BOOK was on the doorstep. It sits, still unopened. I prefer my gratifications delayed, so I should curse Eva and Panos for being so damned efficient. Instead I’m delirious!

Thanks, Eva; thanks, Panos.

I believe I’ve “cracked the nut” with regard to what happened that night in Rio. It is just a working theory, and I’ll keep it to myself for now. If I’m wrong, well, that’s just par for the course…my assumptions usually are. If I’m right, then I wouldn’t want to spoil it for everyone else. Regardless, once the book has been distributed and we’ve had a chance to fully digest, I hope we’ll have an opportunity to discuss it.

Tear it apart, just as Godfather wants us to. Literally and figuratively.

nobody has gotten more out of the Rio experience than have you Jeff… you tracked us throughout and asked questions and totally participated….you really like to dissect stuff…so i honestly hope you like the result…you will have some questions for sure….and for sure i will answer…

anyway you are the “perfect audience” …you look carefully , you think before writing, you listen, you ask, you respond, you engage….all good…for sure you are not the only one, but you do stand out…i know for sure i could get a small textbook just out of my responses to your questions….

sorry i missed your question on my first look at comments…the short answer is yes…the price went up after 100 books…and will go up again after 400 books…the last 200 will be fair market price…i study this market carefully…

honestly, our own wires got crossed and we announced the book for sale a bit prematurely..the video accidentally went public, at the same time people were clamoring for pre-order, and we were in Sydney with exhibit opening and such…so we never got the official page published about the book…this should show up tomorrow on Burn….the 10% discount for those who followed me in Rio on http://www.theriobook.com is in effect for all sales for the first time buy…those followers have been given a discount code already…

in any case, before we could even think, we sold the first 100 books on the first day or two before we could even open the store doors…we always had the first 100 at the lower price and we always had the price jump due to the limited number of copies in this first edition of 600…we do also have 50 collector boxes (hand made work of art with print) which will be announced a bit later….

even with the price jump, we think we are still way under market value…i produce a few books, but i buy many…i am more of a buyer than a seller , so i know what is out there, by whom, and i choose very carefully premium books…i made this book as if i were the buyer…and in Sydney i was able to watch people with the book…the last 8 copies we had with us in Sydney sold for $150. each in about two minutes of being offered and a fight almost broke out between two buyers to get those last copies…now granted, i was there, and could sign, so this was not a typical selling situation, but i think i see the way this will go…those that bought the first 100 have already made a good investment if they were to sell….

every book that Burn has distributed so far (Yakuza,01,02) has increased in collector value within weeks of publication..again, i study this market with all photographers, galleries, and collectors…because of the internet and the plethora of imagery online that is just not tangible, speciality books are becoming more valuable by the minute…not mass produced books to sell many, but limited editions for the discriminating buyer…

at Burn i think you know we plan to publish any book we see that makes sense to publish as a special edition…we are looking at several of our readers book projects now…our book publishing will work just the way everything works here…bring the audience into it..from time to time i will publish my own work…but just as here on Burn, 90% of what gets seen is the work of this audience….if somebody here does an amazing body of work, it will receive amazing treatment by us…

in any case DQ, always a pleasure to have your thoughts right here…i cannot always be around, but i try my best…

it is plastic …
it is outside …
you rip it open, you cut the wrap off…

you see the pattern…
you see the writing…
you open the box… carefully…
it smells like book…
it is a little smaller than I thought…
you take it out the second box ..
it is thicker than I thought…
…you know the movie .. you saw only a few pictures.

I want to create a hand-bound book for my family, bit of a front porch compilation of photos taken over the years at family gatherings on the farm (a few of which have appeared here). I have a high end inkjet photo printer so I’m looking for the “perfect” paper that both prints well and works well as a book page. I’m doing my research and I’ve got a few sample packages of paper on the way but I’m sure folks here could provide some insights. (and this seemed like an appropriate thread ;)) Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Hope you don’t mind the minor diversion David.

Such a nice feel to read your comments.. many many hours of work pay off.. great!

Tom!!

Paper.. there are many nice papers out there, paper has been a major issue we have researched.. it depends what you need, and what you like. Surface, colour, touch, thickness.. matt or lucid or in between.. Tatami is very nice, smooth surface, or Dolce Vita, a bit of texture.. also Fedrigoni has many cool papers.. how many will you make?

Thank you for taking the time to reply, David. I am buying the book, and have no qualms about the price, though of course it would have been a bit of a savings to have bought it right away. Looking forward to finally holding it in my hands after following the exciting escapades noted in the RIO blog.

I have a quite a few books in my collection which seem to be valued at a few hundred dollars, or more, but there’s a difference between what the value might seem to be and what one can actually SELL the book for… or even buy another copy of something… anyway…

You might want to put one of your interns to work on your own library, if just for insurance purposes. There’s a great piece of mac-based software (for ALL of you burnians reading): http://www.bruji.com/bookpedia/ — which catalogs and finds the value of each book.

Rio’s printed, OBX done, NatGeo Rio around the corner. What adventure is next on the DAH Docket?

Normally I don’t shoot my kids’ school events, but the other day, for a convoluted series of reasons I won’t go into, I got stuck for four minutes backstage at my son’s music recital, so I figured, what the hell, I’ve got my walking around point-and-shoot, I’ll do a four minute photo project. Of course the picture quality is pretty much what you’d expect from a four minute photo project, especially given that I thought it was inappropriate to use flash so just set the camera to iso 3200 and said to hell with it, but looking at the results, at least for me, I feel I’ve captured something of the middle school experience, not that this is anything remotely like my own middle school, but nevertheless, I see some universal themes, particularly the boy/girl dynamics, that take me back. Maybe you’ll get something of that too. Here.

Eva and Thodoris, Many thanks for the leads and thoughts. Will research all of those. Thodoris, I’ve printed on several of those papers, and usually make prints on a heavy baryta fiber paper (love but easily scratched), but none that I’ve used are quite right for a book. Samples of several mentioned are on order and I’ll see if I can get my hands on some of those others. Looking to make no more than a dozen books. Matte might actually do nicely but sharp. The epson ultra premium presentation (matte) is too stiff by the way but the tonal range is amazing. The choices, tradeoffs, questions of protective coatings, etc. are dizzying. Can’t go offset, just can’t go “on-demand”, fun conundrums. Have dreams of someday making a book completely from growing the fiber, and shredding my worn clothes, to make the paper through printing and binding. But that will take years.

Andrew, would love to be @Look, should be @Look but just can’t afford it right now. I did finally get a great printer so the print I can do (have never been happy with my work printed by anyone other than me). Will email.

Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey teamed up with his son to create an interactive book that captures the vibrant energy of Rio de Janeiro.

Harvey considers the city the “perfect Shakespeare stage.” And on that stage, he tells a personal story embedded in a journalistic narrative. Images shot over 2½ years flood the unbound pages.

Titled “(based on a true story),” Harvey says the book was inspired by the likes of Hunter S. Thompson, David Lynch and the Coen brothers.

The story is told in pieces, with half of one photograph placed next to half of another. As the pages are turned or slid out, the other part of the image reveals previously unseen details, characters and context.

“Every time I look through the book – and I look through it a lot – I see new relationships,” said Harvey’s son, Bryan Harvey.

Don’t look for text to explain what’s happening or what it all means. Harvey hopes the images will speak for themselves.

Bryan, who designed the book, said it was created to reflect the immersive nature of the images. Viewers may begin to question their initial impressions when they realize the entire story isn’t told at first glance.

“It would ruin it to tell what the story really is,” Harvey said, refusing to fully describe the content of the anecdote.

As a filmmaker, Bryan sees movies as an extension of photography. Contact sheets included in the book show the photos taken before and after the selected images, like the frames of a motion picture.

While the book shows what someone might experience during a day in Rio, it’s also slightly autobiographical. “There are some personal references,” Harvey said. “Moments that trigger some memory. There’s always a mirror in there.”

His son describes the book as “more personal and all about blurring the lines between documentary and fantasy.”

The project was financed in part by daily behind-the-scenes videos shot during Harvey’s last month in Rio and offered for a one-time fee of “a buck 99.” The handcrafted limited-edition book is now available, selling for $120.

“It was a cool opportunity to do something different that hadn’t been seen in a book before,” Bryan said.

CIVI, I will not be going to the Look 3 meeting in Charlottesville. I have heard that Look3 is a gathering place for anarchists, leftists, collectors of 14th century Moldovan crabgrass harmonicas, and other political radicals. Since I do not want to be nearby when the FBI breaks up this convention of extremists, preferably with tear gas, tasers, and high-pressure fire hoses, I think it best to remain here in our happy little burg and eat non-organic hamburgers. Eating non-organic hamburgers discourages self-righteousness even as they spackle your arteries with fat, grease, and other forms of unhealthy gook, so in the end everything breaks even, or at least this is what everyone tells me.

In addition, I’ve looked at the most recent issue of the National Geographic magazine, and while I understand why everyone here is head over heels in love with Our Leader’s photographs of the Outer Banks, the illustration on page 35 is one I find particularly intriguing. I am sure that there are any number of reasons why someone would want to practice acupuncture on a rat; I did this myself once with a pitchfork, for example; but I am not altogether certain what those reasons might be. The scientists studying the rats found that acupuncture reduces the rats’ stress, but it seems to me that they can achieve the same result by serving the rats two or three martinis after lunch or giving them all a big handful of Prozac. If the stuff works on humans, it should work on a bunch of dumb rats.

“And the very best thing about ‘based on a true story’ IS the PHOTOGRAPHY.”

This may be all well and true, but given that there’s nothing in the book but photography doesn’t this beg the question? It’s not like anyone can say that the photos are great but the text bites the big one.

Patricio bro!!!
U know what’s the coolest part?
CNN came to Burn and not vice versa..
Irrelevant for most maybe but important for me..
RIO “forces” the mainstream media to pay attention to WHATS COMING!
RIO is the future , DAH vision million light years ahead,
and “everyone” starts to ask, seriously:
What the hell is tha Burn thing???????

(my answer, humbly: nothing important , just another GARAGE band with a unique sound..
So we are tuning our instruments here and we are ready to go LIVE.. We are going “RAMONES” all the way…
Stay tuned! More good organic “music” coming soonest to a laptop/smartphone near you:)

AKAKY sounds a bit liker eating live chickens because one is too scared to kill them………….. other than that I figured partially to allow ipad users view my site http://www.etrouko.com/ That was step one viewability as I do really like flash hmmnnn gadddamn apple and adobe and their war on consumers

Yai Paul I really do like flash stuff and its versatility so I may run a parallel universe ……..Playing with app cooker begrudgingly just to see how I can translate books into apps that don’t go down the usual path…. have a few ideas floating just got to keep it away from that Harvey fellow….grin and Panos’s book called ” Broadus, Jr does North Korea”

I like Flash and never been a iPhone, iPod, or Apple user until my wife gave me an iPad to keep track of everything I love and follow on the Internet whilst working or traveling. Always been a Windows user so it was a surprise to find every so often a website I couldn’t see on the iPad. Now I am absolutely in love with my iPad and nowadays I rarely ever use my laptop, but I still think Apple with regards to Adobe is an obvious act of bullying.

but I still think Apple with regards to Adobe is an obvious act of bullying.
—————————————————-
not “representing” apple (laughing) but the (Apple vs Adobe WAR) started a long time ago and it seems the war is more like a “Gaza strip direction/approach” than “friendship” …
(there’s no friendships in the corporate world…corporations are born to kill any competition..viva capitalism!!!)

Panos, I probably missed it, but I don’t recall you ever saying anything about “Exit through the Gift Shop.” Produced by your buddy Banksy. “Basquiat,” the film by Julian Schnabel is excellent in a different way.

Regarding Adobe Flash and IOS, I’m sure if it was the best thing for playing videos on IOS, Apple would support it. That’s what Windows fanboys and those who don’t follow Apple don’t get. It’s all about the user experience. Flash eats too much power for the little ARM processors in IOS devices, it crashes a lot, and it’s an invitation to malware, hence, Apple doesn’t allow it. Adobe has admitted as much and pretty much moved on to HTML5.

JOHN :)))))
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! I will watch it all (one hour eleven minutes)
big thank you!
now to your question:” Do you and your fellow americans ‘get’ the irony and very astute political satire inherent in most of banksys work?”

hmmmm, thats a good one really… honestly i have no good answer right now…let me think about it..no sarcasm…but thats a tough question…

remember , there are more than 3 hundred million american folks in this island and guess what…i havent met them all yet…so honestly i cant throw a blanket statement …i can only talk about me , i only represent my thoughts, im not representing Greece although im “proud” to be greek, im not representing America although im very proud to be an American citizen, i only need want to represent me myself and I…
(remember that song?)
so yeah, i thought about it and i can honestly admit that i dig Banksy and all that…but im not gonna speak in the name of a nation…but in Venice Beach California ???? HELL YES THEY TOTALLY GET IT!
also ask “Oakland occupiers/wall street”
dont get me started…
ok big hug

Cool. was just wondering if things like the sweat shop worker and the royal bunting..or the kids saluting a Tesco carrier bag, translated their meaning properly across the pond. what with differing cultural reference points and all.

John ;) really , there is a REASON that BANKSY remains ANONYMOUS in his own HOME , which is your home which is ENGLAND!
In simple greek: Banksy is as controversial and “dangerous”/laughing…. in the USA (especially after the “Guantanamo plastic doll prisoner” in Disneyland…. as he is in Europe , etc…
Even in his own HOME COUNTRY!
U know very well he has REAL REASONS to stay ANONYMOUS ( yes there’s some hype and mystery and sexiness being anonymous ( look at AKAKY for example ) but most of the time the real reason someone stats anonymous is because “someone” is after them/him/her etc
I know u know what I mean ;)
Peace

Panos – Had a class back in college called Modern American Culture – all about outside art, and art on the fringe of acceptance – ie grafitti, art brute, Watts Towers, Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village, Grottos, Henry Darger, Fred Smith Concrete Park, Googie architecture, etc.
We had to watch this old video – but good – about mid 1970’s to early 80’s NYC Graffiti and Hip Hop culture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETRa_tx9c2w
Style Wars – good stuff.

thanks for your nice review and i will check out the “allegations”…hmmmm…well whatever it is i am now a bit used to blogland and at some point when you try to do something special, the larger target you become…most of the “killers” have not done their homework and just come out slinging s— but i will check this one out and respond of course…thanks again…it was great to see you and your work….

here is the answer i posted on your blog..i have no idea why she thinks this about me…others maybe yes, but not me..oh i should have added, but forgot, to mention to Elian that i have in years prior shot paid models in Rio for the Fashion Magazine of the New York Times and maybe some other commercial shoot that i am not remembering right now, but zero for anything coming in NatGeo or anything in the new book or with anything represented in any way as documentary work…you can mention that if you want…

anyway my answer to Eliane

Elian de Silva

what in the world did you see?

i paid no models for the photography you see from Rio..

Now my unpaid assistants (volunteers) who worked with me everyday were definitely subjects for some of my work…key muses in the (based on a true story) novella set with Rio as the backdrop…they are for sure a key part of this book…i list them in the back of the book as “characters”…

the backdrop of the Rio you see was shot mostly for NatGeo and i would be fired immediately if i set up pictures with paid models…..i have shot 40 stories for NatGeo and have a clean reputation in the business…again, i am not sure what you saw or what you think you saw, but an allegation like that needs substantiation….

Hey David thanks for clearing that up…Do you even know Eliane Da Silva? I didn’t think that “Nightswim’ could be anything but real…it was such an experience seeing that…I kept going back to stand in front of it and drink in the whole thing…

I just was a bit shaken by what she wrote… anyway I am glad you got back so quickly. Heavens it seems like even respected photojournalists can suffer from National Enquirer type rubbish…

PANOS. The only flaw in your statement about rob is that it is all wrong…Pretty much everyone knows who he is..and…He’s just a graffiti artist for gods sake!
Dangerous? never was the Monty Python line ” he’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy” more apt.
But mainstream?…if I remember correctly the piece that pitt-jolie bought was called “I cant believe you morons buy this shit”(http://visualhardcore.com/cult/media/2009/12/I-cant-believe-you-morons-actually-buy-this-shit-by-Bansky.jpg) and im pretty sure that the L.A money was ALL put into a charity for the blind….Thats class…Sell it to the blind to help the blind.

IMANTS ‘There is now a growing movement among certain communities who no longer see street art as an eyesore, but rather part of their cultural heritage’…. cultural heritage my arse! They see Dollars!…and thats the problem. When the art world decides that you are collectible..collectors will start to collect…from then on its open season. You cannot place a piece without it having a value outside its intent….and therefore its meaning gets muddied…. So destroy. Yes! Some Anarchist friends and I had a piece of his work..still in its original location..we were getting ready to make a little film about uncovering it (in the way of a reverential archeological dig) from all the fly posters and years of gunk on top of it……..and then destroying it with paint remover……but the council unknowingly did it for us before we had a chance. Appropriate.

That women placed a price tag of $50,000 plus I wonder if she considered looking for the bricks and make a buck out of it…… grin ……..the plumbers have breathed new life into that sewer rat Now it is forgotten

In this South Texas town this month, as the police approached a house and a trailer on a dead-end dirt road, illegal immigrants scattered and fled. But those inside a third residence — a two-bedroom house made of white-painted cinder block, no more than 800 to 1,000 square feet — could not escape, because of chains on the doors and security bars on the windows.

There was no air-conditioning, no electricity. A total of about 115 men and women were being held at the property, but the largest group — at least 50, perhaps more — were locked in the cinder block house. A few of them told investigators that they had been warned they would be killed or beaten if they did not remain quiet. Some had not been fed in days.

One of two men who subsequently pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to harbor aliens, Marcial Salas-Garduino, 23, greeted newcomers to the house the same way, according to court documents.

“Mrs Da Silva!
Good God lady!!!!
, no offense here but before you clearly ACCUSE anyone about anything plz do a home research..
“living in Rio as u claim,
do does not make u an expert on Magnum affairs , or Nat Geo affairs..”

So now let’s go straight into your SOUR GRAPES , demeaning unfounded hater comment above..
You insisted that “magnum”!!??? paid models ( Geezus Christ ) for Rio!!!????!!!..
Listen Amiga: 1) David was working on his personal vision book and NatGeo story ( why blasting Magnum???)
2) I’m really laughing at your ignorance and pure jealousy writing this post.. DAH does NOT need me or anyone defending him but since i followed Rio closely I’ll tell u this.. Check CNN .. The main photo on CNN of the girl kissing a guy “actor” as you “reveal” in your “investigation” mrs Sherlock Holmes :) ( yes yes pun intended ).. Well that “paid actor” is my good friend Lance that volunteered to help David in Rio and the “actress” is another great friend which is a DOCTOR btw and not a model …
I can go on and on explaing to you …but mrs E, before you TRASH someone/anyone ( individual or even Magnum agency as you just blasted ) please please think twice before you post , but you made me laugh so hard with your poisonous ignorance that I forgive you
….
( and remember just because I live in Athens Greece does not mean I’m the Expert on Athenian matters, so stop acting like you’re the mayor of RIO , the absolute authority)
ps: I’m hope you’re not a judge or a cop coz then I feel sorry for your future victims.. Plz re-tune your judgments .. Your “guitar” and voice is totally out if tune and nobody needs that!
Love u !!!”
Panos

I’ve lost count the amount of times this weekend I’ve tried to write something decent about “Based on a true story” but it all comes down to the sad fact I’m a crap writer compounded by the fact in this case that I’m lost for words. But anyway I’ll give it a try, as a promise is always a promise.
SomI knew I’d love Based on a True Story, it’s just that I wasn’t exactly expecting this visual onslaught of highly charged photos I discovered. One thing is seeing images being posted on the Rio Blog out of sequence and another is seeing them assembled into an essay where each one is a vital beat to this beautiful “song”. Now imagine Divided Soul on steroids hurtling along at breakneck speed unrelenting and stirring the Rio sky, sand and sea into an utterly beautiful and sometimes frightening amphitheater waiting to be captured with David’s eye. So much so, I now find Divided Soul collected and rather restrained, because this new book is soooooo much fun. Show both books to someone who’s a stranger to David’s work and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she or he would assume that Based on a true Story was prior to Divided Soul. Now I find that very cool, one thing is to become a better and more experienced artist with age and another is to also maintain the fun, hunger and the energy usually associated with youth. I remember sitting in a cafe on a hot Saturday afternoon in Paris listening to David talking about going back to Rio and finishing this story. Oh man just seeing his eyes and listening to his words as he spoke to Diego Orlando, you could tell he was after something very special and god he was so very very serious about it. So much so I found David for a split second slightly intimidating, in fact disconcerting. Most people you meet in life just try something, gives them an excuse to give up and I realized right then David wasn’t one of them, he was just going to do it.
Then there’s this beat throughout the book and it doesn’t matter how you sequence the images, it has one hell of a rhythm in it. Bang and bang and bang it goes. Back and forth between light and dark, rich and poor, ugly and beautiful and all this without taking judgment or verdict, just letting it be. The first night I looked through the book I must of spent well over two hours going through it until I fell asleep on my sofa. I swear this is absolutely true, I dreamt of Rio, dancing away with this beautiful woman I had never set eyes on before not even in the book. Until I suddenly woke to a start at 4:00 am with the book at my side and sweating profusely with only one woman in the house fast asleep and far vey far from Rio in her dreams. So instead of being a responsible father and husband and going to bed I kept on in Rio grooving away feeling the wild side as I played about with the images. It’s interesting how none of the images really stand out above any of the other, they are all brilliant but sit all together as a team creating a narcotic melody. It’s more like the book gives you one very nasty eyeball kick instead of perhaps two or three images rising above the others giving little eyeball kicks.
Then there’s David’s famous phrase and mantra:
“Don’t show me what you saw, show me what you felt”. It’s EVERYWHERE!! You can sense the sweat, the heat and the noise, the singing, the music, the sex. It’s all magic in this book, full of crazy full moons and passion, yes loads of passion. He’s proved if you are intent on something with all your desire and your blood is thicker than tiger blood you can burn those Roman candles Jack Kerouac wrote about and at both ends.

Paul, that was beautiful, exciting, touching to read. Thanks to you and all Burnins for the report, feedback and for sharing in so brilliant way your experience having on hands your (based on a true story). Special thanks again for Eva (super Eva) and Panos making this operation works

Lisa.. congratulations for your blog, specially your words, description and proximity with the real meanings and essence along the exhibition at Head On . It means a lot.Like happened with Panos, I’ve written this comment addressed to Eliane da Silva , but it is waiting moderation. Hopefully Mrs. da Silva can manage to read it soon

“Eliane da Silva..

I was reluctant to jump in the discussion and extend this comment session around your point , cause seems that your opinion shared here was create in such superficial, poisoning, shallow, vagrant way, so distant of truth and far from what everyone knows about David Alan Harvey as professional. It seemed ridiculous to give you some attention and part of my time, when all I did when I’ve read your lines was to laugh.
But I came to apologize to you, cause I understood I was being harsh, once it must not be your fault such ignorant statement. You mustn’t have understood at all, you must’ve gotten confused and jumped on precipitated conclusions. Anyway, hope we can help you in this one ;

Eliane, I was working as David’s fixer during the production of this book . 24 hours and all the crew , almost a family, living intensively together. I was really close all the process , so you hardly could find another opinion more accurate with the truths behind the scenes.
David took photographs of me, my sister, his digital assistant, other assistants and other girls and friends. We were part of his days and this novella, but nobody was a paid model. THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS BOOK IS THAT IT IS A PERSONAL STORY. David photographed his friends for sure but just as muses, as friends, AND ANYBODY WHO GOES TO http://www.theriobook.com can see exactly how it was. No secrets at all. Just jump there and you’ll have the answers you need

Photographers throughout history have photographed their friends: Sally Mann, Nan Goldin, Diane Arbus, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Duane Michaels, Jock Sturges, Nicholas Nixon, Imogene Cunningham, Edward Steichen, Robert Frank etc etc etc…on and on and on… I don’t think photographing friends should be in the same category as “paid models” Besides of that , the title (based on a true story) right off indicates this essay is PERSONAL…not intended as a story on RIO. The word RIO is not even in the book!!!

And Eliane…not just me, but all cariocas they are so happy with this book… I hope you will too being from Rio yourself , after you understands it better and have a copy to appreciate it . Anyway, send me an email at roberta_prod@yahoo.com.br and I bet David will be happy to sit down , to talk, and to give you a copy when he’s in Rio again.”

Ahhhh Roberta thanks for your view / INPUT ,as a behind the scenes volunteer and also A MAIN CHARACTER OF THE BOOK..
your beauty and intelligence would bother lots of folks out there..
They call it jealousy/envy..
Smiling…
We need to get a little bit of “thicker skin” around “here”..
As Burn gets stronger the more attacks will be targeting/hitting our shores .
It comes with the territory they say!
Big hug!

well amigos, thanks for your defense/attack position…smiling…i think Roberta was right, Eliane just did not do her homework on this…few do homework on blogs…they just blast away with some kind of first impression or on hearsay or whatever..you cannot climb any hill and not get shot at…that is just the way it is..fair has nothing to do with it…human nature to shoot first, ask questions later…so yes a thicker skin and well let’s just drop this one…i would not even have seen it if Lisa had not made it an imperative…let’s move on to more pleasant topics…

Roberta it was great to have you as the class cheerleader and make everybody feel good person..nobody does it like you…what a sweetheart you are…we are for sure bonded forever and ever…i mean if we are not bonded, then we have no business dancing the way we did!!! :)

Panos, from days escaping that town at night in North Dakota with d’Agata to meeting now at Look3 and heaven knows what will happen, you sure know how to pick an adventure…Waffle House 3am sober up? whatever…i’m ready…or not??

Panos..
I agree with you and I’d reinforce your advice on the need of developing a “thicker skin”. But the truth is …It is easy to be spoiled and extra confident knowing that you are out there standing up for you, Burn, David and all of us fortunate enough to be part of your circus…So, as long as we have you…automatically I dont need to care so much about a “thicker skin” :)

Dave…
thanks for this beautiful consideration display. I’ve been learning with the master and I’ve been lucky crossing paths of the people around you, and connecting with the ones around us (i miss the workshop atmosphere…badly )Just reciprocating , the minimum I can do for the greatness that is being given to me. Bounded forever amigo. And god…we do have our little dirty dancing (for all the kinds of music) :))

me too Roberta me too… it was such a privilege to be there, to witness the process, the struggles, the growth, the presentations (especially Steve’s and Kerry’s) and having you always smiling and dancing, encouraging everyone RIO style and David just getting up in the middle of class to walk across the room and take a photo because the light was just, so right… and saying ‘i mean, i’m a photographer i see things i take photos, it’s what i do…’ as if to shake the class into action and then more dancing…

im just the post office guy that turned to be a club bouncer..thats all….smiling…smiling..
yes moving on to more positive stuff…:)
anyway…gotta go…have books to ship! asap!!!
see u all soon later!
one love!

Sam harris..
you were a pleasing piece in all those aussie memories Im constant going back to, specialy during the workshop,your support , your understanding and that amazing report at http://www.samharrisphoto.wordpress.com? Priceless!
Ross and Imants…
you both know how much I appreciate the chance to know you, special people in such special time
Kerry Payne..
I adore this woman…her strenght, presence and contagious style
Stephen Duppont? Genius and so generous..
David Maurice Smith..
keep your eyes on him..He’s being acclaimed by so many great reports, magazines and prizes..what a special year to a talented gentle man(if you are reading this..congrats for the exhibition, for the Sun Studios 2012 Emerging photographer contest.Proud of you mate )
Eva…
the exercise of describing her as professional and woman would be hopeless , cause somehow, she always overcomes every description
Michelle adn Bryan…
Family..creative minds generous souls in beautiful bodies..transcendent beings
David Alan Harvey…Dave is Dave !! always my gold Hi 5!

hey thanks for the feedback…much appreciated….it is what i would wish for many to feel…one can only do something like this rarely….i could not do it now…could not do it before….rare air…so so hard to get the right chemistry going…i always know HOW, but i cannot always DO…i don’t think anyone can…and this work had nobody to please..nobody…absolutely done with no limits…that is rare too..very…no client no sponsor..just pure….and i had a song in my head…it is like songwriting or something like that…not about photography per se..photography just the vehicle…coulda been other ways…there is no text for (based on a true story) ..but i could see doing a book with one picture and lots of text…it is just finding your voice in some magical way and then figuring out how to get it DOWN on paper, DONE…physically done..easy to feel magic in short bursts, tough to sustain, hard to get it done done…

my goal will soon be to start looking for books from others..iconics and emerging as here on Burn…just seems to be the natural flow…..BurnBooks will be a reality…is already a reality….thanks for your support….now go DO ONE!! we are ready to look soonest….

Paul – I’m jealous! I’m still waiting for mine. I really need to get lost in it, right now, too, for reasons I won’t explain just yet.

Lisa – I tried to leave a comment on your blog, but it wouldn’t me. This is what I tried to write:

What the hell. I’ll throw down in this one, too. I know David shot it just as he said he did. It wouldn’t bother me if he had hired models, because, as stated, this is “based on a true story.” But he says he didn’t, so he didn’t. He chose to do it in a photojournalistic method and stuck to that method. I spent a week with David last fall and that was enough to convince me of his artistry, energy and integrity. Roberta was there in RIO and she says so, too. I’ve never met her in person, yet, still, she is a friend and would not lie about such things.

BILL and all Canadian friends…your books will first need to clear customs..honestly its a major PAIN the canadian Royal (with cheese) post office…smiling….
bottom-line , my fellow Canadians allow an (extra week) usually two more days than your fellow Americans…
im getting greaT feedback..
Some Americans (texas , ask Lance) got it already, Seattle on Saturday, NYC on friday, same as California etc…but one thing! BOOKS ARE SHIPPED…of course im getting new orders and im shipping again a “massive” (its a limited book of course…smiling) order on saturday..
Advice to ALL:
1) be patient.. we are “almost” there… u waited too long , couple extra days wont hurt…
2) bring your books in Look3 so DAH might /will try to sign it…duhhhh!
love u all

ps: working as we speak, putting extra bubbles/padding etc so u get the ultimate experience right of the box..
no tuning required!
;)

SAM THANK YOU!!!
The following YouTube video shot by fellow Burnian Jared Iorio
in San Francisco 2009 on a DAH/Momenta workshop, proves what a hard worker I am…
Lol.. (special appearance by Haik)..
Sam I repost this just for you:

Oh Bill yes sorry.. You are in Alaska not Canada , you’ll get it end of week but I’ll check also your tracking number.. Sorry again, Alaska is full of ice but it’s USA , not Canada … Smiling.. Smiling..
Anyway got u buddy;)

that woman must have been smokin’ the same blunt Brother Panos is smoking in the vid above…

FRANKLY, i wouldn’t even have responded…although, I know the integrity of a shoot is paramount for david, especially on assignment, so i understand why i felt the need to reply…but, just another example of why i left, for the most part, the entire blogsphere in general…

Now, i have it on good account (and i’ve been along for the ride w/him before) that David Alan Harvey does buy his models beer/tacos/burritos and shots of stuff, but that in no way related to his ‘assignments’, i mean, i think i’ve been paid by him, and moFo never put me in one of his projects ;)))))…

screw it david, no need to ever have to defend yourself….especially when you have a rabid Greek (with a soft heart) and a belle letterist from Rio (with a tough heart) :)))))

though i hear lancer has been getting contracts to pose for covers of Romance Novels now, post Rio ;))

I don’t think the issue is that some random internet person posted a ridiculous attack on a prominent person, I think the issue people like us need to consider is that it was published. Lisa Hogben, a person with a solid editorial resume, chose to publish a possibly career killing accusation without doing any kind of research to find out if it was possibly legitimate. I mean seriously, let’s not mince words, were it true that a top level photographer hired models to fake an editorial assignment for National Geographic, that would be career killing. It go way beyond that. It would be legendary. A publisher should do some serious fact checking before throwing something like that out there. It will live forever in google.

It was poor jugement for the blogger to allow a potentially libelous post on her web site. That she would do so, then provoke a response from David, smacks of using the post to attract traffic to her blog. But to continue a discussion on this blog that keeps attention focused on the original transgression simply makes the matter worse. David, wisely, suggested dropping the dicussion. I suggest we do as he suggested.

“TIt was poor jugement for the blogger to allow a potentially libelous post on her web site. That she would do so, then provoke a response from David, smacks of using the post to attract traffic to her blog.”

Jim Lisa does play the game that you have accused her of here ………. your comment smacks of the same as the blogger on Lisa’s blog.

But I’m so lost…
I’m going to need a lot of time to really digest it.
I suffer from looking too hard sometimes. I don’t think there is a right and wrong way to “read the novella” but it bothers me that I might be missing something.

what in the world makes you think we have not come up with a Burn Beer dispenser?? make it on down to my place and i will show you the way…

JIM POWERS and ALL

thanks Jim.. and for the record it is quite easy to see the record of exactly how the last part of (based on a true story) was shot… you were logged on to http://www.theriobook.com right? it is all there for all to see how it all happened in real time…

for sure this is a different compilation of work than i have ever done before…marrying literary reference and style with pictures without any actual words at all… i love words…i have always read a lot and have considered an all text book….however this book tries to employ the visual literacy concept i so often espouse here…

since i am blending my personal story in with a journalistic backdrop i was careful not to give anyone the impression that this was any kind of encyclopedic rendition of Rio or even a journalistic reportage…hence the word RIO never appears in the book at all, and (based on a true story) ought to tell you something right there..however, any picture which would appear to be a straight up documentary shot is a straight documentary shot…some of the same pictures will even appear in the Oct 2012 issue of NatGeo….if i rigged a docu shot in any way that purported to be a docu shot i would be correctly fired from ever working at NatGeo again or any other publication…

moreover it would go against my own personal ethics on documentary photography…it is indeed a weird facet of human behavior that some see a little bit of something and somehow project themselves way too far forward without even seeing the book or knowing anything about the book or about me and yet manage to work over their keyboards pretty good betraying the very journalistic values they are supposedly exposing…

i do thank many of you for coming to my explanation here and probably over killing the poor woman in Oz…she just didn’t know….or didn’t get it…or has some personal axe to grind that we cannot imagine…

our little band of commentators here has become literally a little band…often disagreeing , yet here we are…that is all that needs to be said…stay tuned for one of your colleagues here …next up on essays, MW (Michael Webster)…his is the last story before the EPF drumroll begins this weekend…sharpen your knives amigos…ha ha…all in good spirit, and all for the craft we love the most…

IM PSYCHED!!
USPS started working as they should!!!
Fine tuned!
To ALL!!!
Books might arrive a little SOONER we anticipated ..:)
and that’s AWESOME …
( although we took extra time to extra secure the COVER of the Masterpiece..)
but that’s dope !!!
Thank u all!
Plz keep bugging me at:panos.skoulidas@gmail.com
if any questions about shipping.. WE got all books insured , tracking numbers etc..
Again be patient ( especially my lovely adorable Canadian friends)..
YOU WILL BE REWARDED…
p

David – I am going to take you up on that offer, and bring some local beer as well.
If I can get my project moving – I’ll be there relatively soon to work in your area – We should talk about some of that if you have some time…

i am not sure how long most of you who are here now realize how unbelievably interesting it is that Panos, our wild man of yesteryear is now the U.S.shipping department of BurnBooks…of course without Kim , the man is over, but now if THAT is not a really interesting development of a little photo blog audience, than i do not know what is….anybody else out there need a job?? long hours, low pay, and you can get fired without notice….sound familiar?? with a name like Burn, it can only be poetic justice that we go down in flames, hopefully in a blaze of glory….but not yet…right now we got work to do…get on it Panos!!

always time for you…i hope you know that…if i do not respond at any point to you, or anyone here, it is simply because i just cannot at that moment….

MILLI

cool…frankly, i thought when this was all done and i looked at it myself for the first time as a done deal, that women would “get” this book more than men…or, let me re-phrase, that more women would get it more than most men….

many, but not all, men tend to be linear thinkers, women more abstract, emotional etc…i was surrounded by only women during the novella shooting part of this…probably had something to do with it, and also i have no fear of tapping into my feminine side…

from a pure work standpoint, i tend to work better with women than with men….my very best magazine editors have always been women….men tend to want to compete…i have no desire to compete….zero desire to compete….women collaborators are totally strict with me..see me as needing help i guess, which i do, and then squeeze out the very best work i can do…

men let me get away with everything, women don’t let me get away with anything

and 100% for sure my photography ALWAYS comes from my feminine side…

in my classes, for sure women almost always are the superstars of a week of shooting..tending to do essays nobody ever thought of in a way nobody ever thought of…

does any of this mean i know anything about women? hell no!! :) that’s the point!!

CARLO

you came by the loft when we were making this book, so you knew well how much thinking was going into it…yet the nut of it is all instinct and gut level action , reaction, and perceptions….i want this to be a book that is studied…the opposite of todays trend towards fast food style information….yes, you will need to think about it….interpret…go back and forth…and like any really good film or book, the beauty will hopefully be that you will never know 100% for sure how it “came out”..the obvious “endings” never stick with you like the mysterious twists….yet i hope the journey does indeed take you somewhere…thanks for looking, and thanks for thinking…

I just received my copy an hour ago. Wow. Just wow. It’ll take a while to settle. It’s back in the box. Not ready to view it again. Bad day.
Thank you David, and thank you Eva and everyone who made this come here quickly! It is an amazing book.

Most of the things if not all that make an impression on me I have not understood right away. They slowly reveal their meaning. Each time I study them more gets uncovered…and the more you live and experience the richer the message gets.
For example, you have said something along the lines that everything you do here is like a workshop….an ongoing workshop.
Everyday I come here I remember that and the message rings true louder and louder.
I can recall some essays here that have given me insight into feeling with my eyes instead of just looking and have expanded my visual language.
All of that also helps me in understanding your new work (based on a true story).
Soooo, yes….this one is for studying and digesting.

David – you’re the busiest guy I know. My parent’s were busy like this at one or two points in my life when they ran their own business. You’re running yours and that keeps you on the go… Don’t you ever just take time away from it all for your self?

STELIOS, MILLI, CARLO, ALL..
Thank you ALL for feedback… Keep it coming..
June 1st tomorrow will be THE day for most that preordered..
( again to my BELOVED Canadians give it few more days ..almost there.. Almost there)
In the meantime I didn’t forget those who ordered today or yesterday .. Shipping tomorrow..
Honestly you guys made me a hero in my post office..
They consider BURN as best “customer” !!!!
Running, shipping, running but I will never leave my BIKE alone;)
ps: message to all: get on your bicycles more often, thank you!!!

Having health issues, guy. I don’t want to complain…well, that’s a lie, isn’t it? I want to break into a fine whine and enjoy the fermented milk of human kindness, which is actually a bit hard on the liver, but gives a nice buzz if you drink enough of the stuff. And unlike based on a true story, a work that is apparently showing up everywhere exactly when it is supposed to, the new medication I’m supposed to be taking for the first time this week not only did not show up when it was supposed to, when the UPS guy showed up the dope he did have was the wrong stuff. Apologies have been flying about like campaign promises since this morning and everyone assures me that the right stuff, with or without Chuck Yeager, will be here just as soon as they figure out what the hell happened in the first place.

I have also noticed in my travails that Einstein was right; time is relative, and there’s no place in the world where time is more relative than in a doctor’s office. I realized this when I went up to the City of Sin to see a specialist in my malady. The appointment was for 12:45 and I was there; not only was I there, but I was so there that I had even managed to hit every green light between our happy little burg and the City of Sin, and when I got to where I was going, there was even an empty parking spot directly in front of the building. Yes, I was one of God’s favorites that day, but I learned how quickly the Lord can rescind His favor. My appointment was for 12:45—I got in to see my specialist at 2:10. In between the appointed time and the actual time, I sat in a profoundly uncomfortable chair contemplating the meaning of the universe and watching old episodes of Bonanza, which, now that I think about it, is an unnecessary qualification: all episodes of Bonanza are old. I also do not understand why everyone was so impressed with color television in the 1960’s; the spectrum of available colors was not at all impressive and I can tell you from personal experience that Star Trek was much better in black and white than it was in color. In black and white, Star Trek dealt with profound truths and the search for meaning in a universe filled with malevolent forces and aliens; in color, the program just looked cheesy. I suppose the novelty of having a show in color in the first place was enough to sell the program, but I am happy that The Twilight Zone went off the air before some network suit decided to ruin the show with color.

The other thing that I’ve noticed, now that my disability is public knowledge, is the large number of panhandlers and other Democrats who hit me up for spare change as I try to get from my car to the egregious mold pit wherein I labor for my daily bread. Once upon a time, I was able to avoid these nuisances, sometimes by the simple expedient of walking faster. This simple expedient, however, is no longer open to me, and the denizens of moocherdom make the morning walk in to work annoying on so many different levels because I am no longer to get away from them. I am not sure why so many of these people are offended when I tell them no, I don’t have any money, or, at least, I have no money I am willing to give to them; some actually want to pat me down and make sure that I am not evading my responsibilities towards the wretched refuse of our teeming shore, responsibilities I frankly did not know I had until I could no longer evade them. I am in favor of maintaining a social safety net so that the socially and mentally challenged, the physically disabled, the poor, the aged, and the none too bright are not thrown out into the street, there to fall victim to some sociopathic teenage predator out of A Clockwork Orange. I am not, however, in favor of my providing all of the above categories with money for coffee and cigarettes out of my own pocket. First, this is annoying in the extreme, and second, I do not make enough money to support a flourishing economic ecosystem and myself. I just don’t. Really.

PS I don’t think of me and IRL as Jekyll and Hyde; Heckle and Jeckle is closer to the truth, I think.

Akaky – I hate to hear of your continued health issues – but hope that you keep us always informed. I hope things improve and soon. I hope that even when it is bad, you can find the means, strength and will to write.

If I were a wealthy man, I’d send you $10.00 in pocket change ever day to help you ward off the panhandlers.

No, that’s a lie. I wouldn’t do it. I would think about it, though, and maybe do it once in awhile and if you wanted instead to put the $10 towards the purchase of the fermented milk of human kindness, I would be kind enough not to ask.

this is a fairly expensive book, and we couldn’t and did not even try to make it less expensive…it is expensive to build this book and we put a lot into it…we are suggesting a very fair price in the market we are in…we have sold enough books already at this premium price fast enough to know we have runaway good fortune…sure good for us, but also potentially good for this audience, for you..this will launch BurnBooks into a speciality publisher for whomever can produce the book we think we would want to take on…this could be from the iconic this could be from the emerging, and you know already what my inclinations are…if you bought (based on a true story) as an investment i am pretty sure you will double your purchase price by Christmas..smells like that….thanks Gordon…and i always look forward to your comments and the work when you show it…

David, I assume your post is addressed to me and responding to my comment that the book is not as expensive as I had anticipated. Just keeping things in perspective, your book is about the same price as dinner and a movie for two, or what I charge at my studio for an 8×10 print. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on it.

I have not forgotten that I promised to send some work to you. I’m slowly pulling something together.

BTW, picked up the latest NatGeo. OBX looks awesome in print, so much more satisfying than online. Congratulations on it.

DAH,while I’m sticking with my original opinion of not really being a fan of the loose binding and
reconfigurable pages (just not how I,personally,enjoy a book) I have to say that the images
are fantastic.
You really should think about doing this for a living :)

WOW!!! Just finished looking at the book and I have to admit it’s one of the best I’ve seen. Sure there’s a few negative points such as the loose pages format, not a big fan of it quite frankly. But at the same time it gave a whole new dimension to the book. There’s a couple of shots that I wasn’t too sure about, maybe it’s just a first impression, I’ll dive into it again very soon.

But overall I’m so glad that I bought it, David you’re a monster of photography. Rio looks sexy, full of life and really fun.